#HC-04-30 Good Brain, Bad Brain: Basics
About Course
University of BirminghamDescription
Understand your own amazing brain
We will look at what your brain is made of, how these components are organised and how they function.
This information is helping neuroscientists across the globe understand the brain – and how it is able to do everything from stopping you falling off your bike, to making you feel sad that your football team lost their game, to helping you learn how your brain works.
What topics will you cover?
- The cells of the nervous system: neurones and glia
- Basic neuroanatomy of the brain and the concept of the relationship between structure and function
- Basic properties of neurones, including an introduction to the action potential
- A brief introduction to the functioning of the synapse
- Examples of drugs (legal and therapeutic) that alter the function of neurones and synapses
- Examples of brain disorders that illustrate how some functions are highly localised, such as the sensory systems, whilst others are distributed throughout the brain, such as emotion
Who will you learn with?
Alison Cooper is a senior lecturer at the University of Birmingham, where she teaches neuroscience and pharmacology.
Who developed the course?
The University of Birmingham is a public research university, consistently listed as a leading UK university and ranked among the top 100 in the world.
What Will I Learn?
- Describe the key features of the cells that make up the human nervous system that allow them to carry out their function
- Explain how the arrangement of these cells within the human brain relates to brain function
- Explain how drugs can impact on the normal function of neurones of the brain
- Discuss how brain disorders can impact on the functioning of the brain
Topics for this course
Introduction
Welcome to the course00:00:43
How to study on this course
Further resources
The brain and the nervous system
I'm a brain doctor, and if anything about this course is best, I think it's to give examples of drugs (both legal and therapeutic) that change the function of neurons and synapses. Case studies work well.
Alison Cooper, the lecturer, said it very well. It's so vivid in such a boring course. Great.
My favorite part is the concept of the basic neuroanatomy of the brain and the relationship between structure and function, which is a very good section, and the course is really good, and it gives us a sense of how our brains are made.
In this course we learn about what the brain is made of, how the components are organized, and how they work. It's amazing how complex the human brain is.
Material Includes
- Official Certificate
Tags
Target Audience
- This course is aimed at anyone with an interest in finding out the fundamentals of how the human brain works. It assumes that you will have basic school-level biological knowledge.
- You might be doing your A-levels and considering a neuroscience-related degree; a computer-scientist interested in neural networks; or in business and wondering how the workings of your employees’ brains influences the culture of your business.